Brain nutrients have become increasingly important additives in the diets of infants, children and pregnant and lactating women because of their ability to promote early brain development. Additionally, compounds useful for treating neurodegenerative disease or brain injury are continuously being sought. Neuro-toxic compounds, such as environmental, industrial or dietary toxins, need to be identified in order to remove or reduce exposure to such compounds. Methods for discovering such nutrients and toxins are often extremely time consuming and inefficient. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a reliable, consistent, and fast method for identifying compounds having neurological development benefits. Additionally, there is need to identify compounds that are neurologically harmful.
It has been demonstrated that stem cells, such as adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), can be differentiated into multiple mature cell phenotypes, including neuronal cells, in a reproducible manner. In particular, this has been demonstrated in human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs). hADSCs are a useful research tool because they are readily available from commercial resources or liposuction procedures, and they do not involve the same potential controversies that arise from the use of embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, hADSCs are easily obtained from an individual patient, thus providing an opportunity for personalized medicine. Accordingly, there is a need to provide procedures for promoting neurogenesis in ADSCs, and more particularly, to provide suitable cultureware and media for promoting neurogenesis in ADSCs.